Here are some children’s Valentine card poems: “I love you, I love you, I love you, I do. But don’t get excited, I love monkeys, too!” – “I climbed up the door and I opened the stairs. I said my pajamas and buttoned my prayers. I turned off the covers and pulled up the light. I’m all scrambled up since you kissed me last night.” - “UnValentine: Roses are Red. Violets are blue. Sugar is sweet. Unlike you.”
I really love it when Annemarie hands me a greeting card for someone’s birthday, anniversary or other event – and asks me to “write something extra that’s loving” for that special person. She knows I’m going to use some scripture or at least pray for God’s blessing in my note. But tugging inside is the less Godly and more fleshly nature: I’m flattered. I feel like I have to entertain them somehow. And I’m also prone to say what they want to hear instead of being absolutely truthful. So flattery, persuasion and compromised truth are the issues at hand when I begin to tell someone how much I love them. The same is true in these three temptations or tests of Jesus. The depth of His love in the wilderness teaches us how we sinners can send the best Valentines to God and each other.
Jesus prepares us for our tests and temptations in this story even when we fail the test and we don’t come out smelling like a rose. Tests of true love reach beyond mere words and require action. I know that I’ll probably have to show Annemarie and my children how much I love them instead of just talking about it. And I’ll have to resist the temptation to just manipulate them with flattery, or persuade them with showy entertainment, or give into whatever they say they want without caring about what they really need from me.
God announced that Jesus was His “beloved Son in whom He was well please.” This wasn’t flattery, sensationalism or an unearned empty title. The Spirit took Jesus into the wild for His Test of true love. Our fasting and praying during Lent shows our devotion to God. And this is patterned after Jesus’ fasting forty days to show God’s love for us.
It’s no wonder that the Devil tried flattery first on Jesus. Satan says, “I know Your background. You’re the Son of God aren’t You. Well, since You’re so hungry, why not us some of that creator power and change these rocks into food.” Brother Dave Gardner used to say, “Man cannot live on bread alone. He must have peanut butter.” But I doubt that any of us has been as hungry as Jesus was after 40 days with no nourishment whatsoever. He could have turned stone into bread. And then everyone would have loved Him (for a while) and there would be no more hunger in the world. That same God in Him had fed the Israelites for 40 years with Manna – not so much as a quick-fix way to satisfy their hunger, but rather to draw us closer to Himself . . . for a loving relationship.
At the end of that 40-year wilderness journey Moses preached his great sermon on the plains of Moab (the entire book of Deuteronomy) just before the Israelites entered the promise land. And Jesus answered the Devil three times by quoting Deuteronomy for each test. For the stones to bread miracle, He said, “You can’t count on the food you eat to give you life. God’s creative, sustaining and living Word will keep you alive.” That’s from 8:3.
Next, the Devil put Jesus on top of the Temple and said, “Jump, because Psalm 91 says Your Father has placed You in the care of angels. They will catch You so that You won’t so much as stub your toe.” But Jesus answered: “Don’t put the Lord your God to the test” (Deut. 6:16).
A crowd of over 2,000 people gathered downtown Johannesburg, South Africa, as a young African perched on the 6th floor balcony ready to jump. “Jump, jump,” the crowd yelled. After 2 hours, he jumped to his death. The spectacle provided a real afternoon’s entertainment for the feverish crowd. Officials tried talking him out of jumping, but the crowd kept on screaming for him to get on with it. In the end, he felt he had to jump to appease the crowd.
Jesus could have drawn a crowd and landed safely 400 feet below in the valley of Kedron. But He would have only been a 9-day sensation and the crowd would have expected more entertainment. “You only look for signs and wonders so as to believe” (John 4:48). Ungodly sensationalism will only temporarily satisfy fickle people.
The last test in the wilderness involved the Devil taking Jesus high above all the kingdoms on earth and saying, “Everyone of them will follow You, if You will compromise Your high standards and worship me, too.” Jesus’ Valentine to His Heavenly Father dismissed the Devil, “You shall worship and serve the Lord your God only” (Deut. 6:13 repeating 6:5).
Heavenly Father, teach us how to love You with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our might, just as Jesus did in His wilderness journey - tested to the limits of all human capacity and stood firmly in love with You. Please send Your Holy Spirit to comfort, guide and direct our choices – to love You and others as ourselves. Thank You for loving us first so that we can truly love, in the name of Jesus, the lover of our soul, Amen.
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